adies, your wardrobes are about to
be liberated. This season, clothing
takes a boundary-breaking unisex
turn, as Miuccia Prada – fittingly
dressed in a baggy, men’s-style sweater –
declared backstage: “I think to people,
not to gender.” While the tradition for
fashion brands is to show menswear and
womenswear on gender-specific catwalks,
this Prada show fused the two on onerunway. “I think the combination is more
real,” she continued. “It’s more ‘today’,
otherwise it looks like we are in classes, in
the time of my grandfather, when women
were divided from men.”
Most women have flirted with the idea
of menswear: Katharine Hepburn wore
Brooks Brothers shirts bought from a secret
girls-only counter at the back of the New
York store, Marlene Dietrich worked theL
WORDS: LAURA WEIRShared identity
BORROWING from the boys has long been
in vogue, but now the GENDER-NEUTR AL
wardrobe is proving to have universal appeal.tux with unrivalled command, while Doris
Day cavorted in her lover’s oversized shirts.
But fashion is moving beyond the
straightforward notion of borrowing from
the boys towards a freewheeling, fabulously
grey area where clothes are gender neutral.
“Against a backdrop of increasing gender
fluidity, we are seeing a rise in a unisex or
co-ed mode of dress,” agrees Judd Crane,
director of womenswear and accessories at
UK department store Selfridges. “Clothes
are becoming transeasonal and lines are
rapidly starting to blur. For instance, we
sold a lot of Givenchy girls’ sweaters to
boys because they like the graphics.”
Toby Bateman, buying director for
Mr Porter, reports women are shopping
year-round on the site for “slouchy styles
like sweatshirts, T-shirts and knits”.
Meanwhile, Donna Player, group executive
of merchandise for David Jones, has seen
“cross shoppers” buying men’s jeans for the
fit. “You can’t always get that exact look
from buying women’s clothing,” she says.
Driving the shift is a more open society
that encourages freedom of expression for
men and women, the power of the pink
dollar, the move away from conventional
officewear and the shifting of gender roles
in the home. It’s all up for grabs and we
need a wardrobe to reflect the new mood.
“Up until we launched our womenswear
store, both genders were buying Thom
Browne in our menswear stores,” says Rob
Ferris, head buyer at Harrolds, whose
current campaign features model Małgosia
Bela in menswear. He continues: “Thom
Browne is a visionary and his pieces are
very highly sought after by anyone who
loves tailoring. It’s less about liking
menswear and more about appreciating
design in whatever form it takes.”
So is that it? Are catwalk shows being
gender-blended because women and men
are now living parallel lives and their
clothes need to be able to perform the same
function? “For me, putting men and
women on the same catwalk at the same
time is probably a reaction to the idea of
condensed season,” says designer Jonathan
Anderson. “It’s easier to show menswear
and pre-collection at the same time
because the production schedule for both
collections is similar.” But, he states, it’s
also about something else. “Unisex is
a dated concept. Now it’s more about
garments for garments’ sake. T-shirts,
jeans, duffle coats, biker jackets – it
all means the same thing no matter if
it’s a man or woman wearing it. They are
a neutral zone.”Backstage at Prada
menswear spring/
summer ’15.56 – MAY 2015vogue VIEW